Brainscan (1994) on Netflix
Michael, a teenage horror fan, gets a disc for a game called Brainscan. Its host, the Trickster, pushes him to kill, and the murder he plays out matches a real one.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.0/1014,416 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes13%
Trailer
Plot summary
Michael Brower is a teenager who lives alone in the house of a father who is not there, his leg permanently hurt in the crash that killed his mother. He watches Kimberly, the neighbor he is drawn to, and fills his time with horror movies and video games. Kyle, his only friend, shares those tastes, and both belong to the school's Horror Club. Kyle tells him about a new game called Brainscan that is meant to feel real, and the first disc arrives in Michael's mail. The game warns that it works through hypnotic suggestion. A host named the Trickster appears and urges him to take on the mind of a psychopathic murderer. Michael's first mission is to kill a stranger.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Brainscan (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Brainscan's script was originally written in 1987 around a haunted VHS tape with no physical villain, just a voice tormenting the hero by phone; producer Michel Roy reworked it into an interactive CD-ROM game and invented the Trickster character to cash in on the era's fascination with virtual reality.
- The Trickster's climactic transformation was originally planned as a more deformed monster built with prosthetics and animatronics, but director John Flynn scrapped that design for subtler digital effects once he saw it, feeling the practical monster looked "too real" and horrific for the film.
- Director John Flynn later said bluntly that his teenage star Edward Furlong "couldn't act" and had to be "slapped awake" every morning on set, while praising stage actor T. Ryder Smith's turn as the Trickster as extraordinary.
